I'm a writer, publishing both as SJ Rozan and, with Carlos Dews, as Sam Cabot. (I'm Sam, he's Cabot.) Here you can find links to my almost-daily blog posts, including the Saturday haiku I've been doing for years. BUT the blog itself has moved to my website. If you go on over there you can subscribe and you'll never miss a post. (Miss a post! A scary thought!) Also, I'll be teaching a writing workshop in Italy this summer -- come join us!
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Letter to Big Oil from a small person
There's a lot going on I want to be talking to you about, but I've been stunned into silence by the gulf coast oil spill. This disaster is so huge it makes everything else seem small. My small goings-on, my small plans. I've been feeling the way I did after 9/11. But now I'm snapping back to life, and I'm pissed off. So I'm sending this open letter to BP and Big Oil in general. And maybe then I'll return on this blog to talk about my small life.
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Hey, Big Oil! A message from the small people: to hell with you. Like any back-alley pusher you've sold us the idea that we need you. That you can make life great. That we can have it all, and it won't cost much. That cars beat mass transit, and plastic beats everything. And we bought it, so we share the blame, though your money and your muscle made it hard for us to fight, us being so small and all. But me, I'm drawing the line. In the name of the small pelicans, and the small fish, and the small fishermen, and the small shopkeepers, and the small children in the next generation, I'm saying this: the US President looked very presidential the other night, promising to keep you in line. I'll support him when he does and oppose him when he doesn't. And as hard as I've been trying, over the last few years, to cut down on your products -- I don't own a car, I recycle, I take my own canvas bag when I shop, all that saintly stuff -- I'm going to try twice as hard. I'll buy products with recyclable packaging, even when they're more expensive. I'll buy local food. I'll walk where I'm going, or take the train. Though I'm no scientist, I'll do what I can to support the use of alternative fuels. I'll vote for politicians who say they'll rein you in, and if they don't I'll vote against them next time. I'll speak out against you and your arrogance and your greed at every opportunity.
I'm hoping lots of other people will join me. I'm hoping, you see, that something good will emerge from this disaster: that we small people will wake up to the giant smackdown you've laid on us, and to the fact that we don't have to take it. And I'm hoping, over the months and years to come, that each of you sleeps exactly as well as you deserve.
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Hey, Big Oil! A message from the small people: to hell with you. Like any back-alley pusher you've sold us the idea that we need you. That you can make life great. That we can have it all, and it won't cost much. That cars beat mass transit, and plastic beats everything. And we bought it, so we share the blame, though your money and your muscle made it hard for us to fight, us being so small and all. But me, I'm drawing the line. In the name of the small pelicans, and the small fish, and the small fishermen, and the small shopkeepers, and the small children in the next generation, I'm saying this: the US President looked very presidential the other night, promising to keep you in line. I'll support him when he does and oppose him when he doesn't. And as hard as I've been trying, over the last few years, to cut down on your products -- I don't own a car, I recycle, I take my own canvas bag when I shop, all that saintly stuff -- I'm going to try twice as hard. I'll buy products with recyclable packaging, even when they're more expensive. I'll buy local food. I'll walk where I'm going, or take the train. Though I'm no scientist, I'll do what I can to support the use of alternative fuels. I'll vote for politicians who say they'll rein you in, and if they don't I'll vote against them next time. I'll speak out against you and your arrogance and your greed at every opportunity.
I'm hoping lots of other people will join me. I'm hoping, you see, that something good will emerge from this disaster: that we small people will wake up to the giant smackdown you've laid on us, and to the fact that we don't have to take it. And I'm hoping, over the months and years to come, that each of you sleeps exactly as well as you deserve.
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